My Clutch Install Story w/ pics
 

ahhhhh

man, never let a family anything work on your car. I think you should get him to replace anything he broke or damaged, especially the tranny.

if thats the tranny mount thats cracked in one of your pics your screwed! why not just pay someone or someplace $400 to put your clutch in if you can't do it yourself?

awwwww!!!! that looks terrible man!! i feel sorry for u man.

if the tranny is cracked.. he needs to buy you a new one.

some more pics...

All i can say is WOW...

i asked joe if that part matters, he said it doesnt. When we put sealant on it and bolted it to the T/C, it didnt budge 1 bit and theres no oil circulating thru the broken area, its just exposed to air. Should it matter?

You actually think sealent is going to hold that piece of aluminum in place?

you dont like your car do you? :(

Theres nothing that a little bit of JOB Weld cat fix! :rolleyes:

LOL
I thought my clutch installation this was fun! I wil lpost the story once we finished. But you can know now that none of my component got scratched up like that. and after we refilled al lthe fluids I left no single bolt un attached or not torqued to spec.
LOL
and no the cheapest place quoted $520 for labor and most expensive guy wants $800.
LOL
this post made my weekend a joy :P

yea we were thinking of getting aluminum weld today at a weld shop and weld it along wit the sealant, but it held prettty strong, i guess ill just buy the weld today since he already has a welder. BTW: THe tranny is made of cast aluminum correct? I really feel sorry for my lil baby right now...feels like shes in surgery and barely holding on!! I need all the advice i can get. Help me save my baby!

Well first off the radiator should have came out first. Second the TC should have came off along with the axles (i never have had to use a slap hammer to get them out i just you a flat head screw driver and they pop right out. Third you should have drop the engine out through the bottom of the car. That makes thing a million times easier!!!. Man im sorry about the tranny!!! Try and find someone to weld it for you but that sucks! Hope everything works out. And it is possible to do the swap in 4 hours. I pulled the engine out pulled the tranny off and retimed the whole engine in about 4 hours. Of course it was the 3rd time i pulled a engine out of the EVO so you start to catch on. Well anyway GOOD LUCK!!

Chris

the cheapest place is in riverside in SoCal for 300 and i heard he has experience wit awd installs, and the most expensive is the dealership for 1200

do you have to take out the whole engine just to replace a clutch? :confused:

are u saying u pulled the T/C away from the engine or tranny? He got the T/C separated from the engine with ease, but from the Tranny, no good. It separates about 1 inch and doesnt budge

I just seperated from the tranny. THere are 3 bolts on the top and 3 on the bottm (17mm i believe). You take out those 6 bolts then the is a pry spot inbetween the TC and tranny which once agian with a flathead screwdriver pops it right off. Im not sure what you are talking about the TC isnt part of the engine but from your pics it looks like he took somthing off the TC. Anyway if you would have done that the engine slids right out the bottom of the car with no problems at all.

CHris

your $500 save turned into a nighmare + several thousand dollars in damage...

I'm glad I'm getting someone to do it. It looks simple on the pages, but once you're doing it, it's always different...

Good luck with it, I think you may need a lot. :)

WOW!! I think i'd kill somone.

This is the worst clutch install I've seen so far.

With the engine is out, why not rebuild it with a stroker kit and put a bigger turbo? ;)

i don tsee the several thousand dollars in damage? Cuz the broken tranny piece? I think if it is welded, it wont be much of a problem because it clamps hard onto the TC and doesnt budge a bit even with the sealant. He didnt damage anything really besides that piece, just scratches here and there which wont terribly damage performance or the car. I'm not showing off my tranny anyway. I guess the agenda for today is weld the piece, then try to separate the tranny from TC, slap the tranny on, then the TC back onto the tranny. drop the engine in and put everything where it's supposed to be and pray to God everything works fine

I would kill him. He should replace anything that he broke. Any shop that you paid to do the work would if this guy was so stubborn and ignorant that he wouldn't even look at a "how to", he should never be trusted to work on a car. I have done it several times and I always print out a how to as a reminder.

Welcome to the land where mechanics are 'bred' from the supposed glory days of Chevy and Ford, and not 'raised.'

Gosh, I'm so glad my mechanic-ing skills came from my father, a professionally trained aircraft mechanic. :D

Better luck next time.

jcnel.

P.S. Did you breakout the torque wrench for anything, or just use the calibrated elbow?

HOLY SH!T. That looks like something that would happen to me! So frustrating isn't it? Even after its put back together, its always going to be on your mind if something else was done incorrectly. I had similar problems with the turbo install on my Integra (wrong helper that didn't want to look at the manual). Its hard to blame someone who is trying to help (especially family) but man, there gotta be responsibility some where. You should have him read the "joe's how to" a couple of times and go back step-by-step to make sure everything is kosher. Good luck man.

" I can FEEEEEL the Torque!1"

;)

jcnel.. no torque wrench :( .......YET, im gonna get this damn mechanic the tools he needs to do this right

Holy moly... too bad you didn't look around this site a little more before you let your friend attempt that job. If you try to fix that broken casting and it fails once you have the engine back in, you will be looking at this whole mess again. Replace the casting. Get your car to an experienced shop and learn from this very expensive lesson. I feel for you on this as I know you trusted someone who thought he knew what he was doing. I have seen my car apart for a trans job and clutch replacement on an Evo is not a job for amatures or the inexperienced. I hope that a lot of other owners will learn from this.. thank you very much for posting it.

Bring the transfer case when you get that welded so you can bolt it to the transfer case to align the ear, then weld it. The welding job should cost you about half of what the original clutch job would have. I guess $200 bucks. That's probably in the ballpark.

Good luck! Tough situation but you got walked on.

just make sure to get someone else to weld that alumium. That's cast for a reason.

Aluminum welding is so much harder than most welding. It really takes some skills to have a solid weld on an alumium, they melt to easy.

what a yayhooo.

No

Here's a picture of when I had mine installed with the engine still being installed.

Thats funny, then why the hell did that guy take out his whole engine?

When looking at the pictures all I could think of was "this is going to be expensive." Ouch.

Oh my God. At what point are you going to accept that this guys does not know wtf he is doing?What a mess.

The fact that sealant was used is unreal. Why is everything scratched?
Dude, get help.

What in the hell? I'm so sorry you had to go through all that crap. Clutch Doctors here in Beaverton, Oregon did the whole job in 3.5 hours and charged $330 including flywheel resurface with a diamond cutting lathe.

Hey at least you probably learned a thing or two, right?

This very sad :( I had My clutch done by mechanic that has done over 150 clutches and use to install for Clucth master and it cost me only $425 it took only 4 hour total with him taking a 30 minute lunch. If anyone is getting there clutch done and some one is stating that it will take 10-12 hours they are not an expierenced mechanic since a good mechanic can do it in four hours. The part that sucks for the EVO is that you have to remove two front wheels plus the axel :crap: . It took mecahnic working on my car 1 hour to get to clutch since he know what he is doing. The hardest part is getting transmission back in {thumbdwn}

OMG ... You actually let him pull your motor out? OMG ..

*drops dead*

Good luck dude .. Hope your car still works after that. ..

Dude, I don't know what to tell you. First, you let an ignorant back-yard mechanic touch your car. The first sign of "maybe I should go somewhere to have this done" was when he refused to read the how-to by Joe. If you have a piece of paper that TELLS you how to do something, then use it. You just let this guy completely jack up your $30,000 car, what are you going to do when he runs out of patience and starts to really rush things? I cannot believe that you were telling him how to take it apart and he would not listen, what an ignorant ***.........even if he is family.

OMG>.. i would cry or kick his ass...one or the other. The T/C will unbolt (6 bolts i believe) then scoot away from the tranny....then once you unbolt the tranny it will drop out underneath and the engine and T/C will stay where they are until the tranny bolts back up. I hope to god it works out cause if it goes together and then that cast aluminum piece brakes off again thats no good...get it welded professionally

the good part to this mess is that it will be easy for you to start upgrading while everything is out.

Aren't the little gold brackets on top of the engine for hoisting the engine out?

Anyway, this is a hack job like no other. It it was me, I would trade the car in the minute it was put back together. The engine and tranny are damaged and will never be the 100% again. I feel sorry for that car's next owner.

Tell me, you let this guy work on a 30k EVO with no experience with them? What a fool. Sorry.

Dude I am speechless, if someone did that to my car he would need to be put into the witness protection program. For the love of god what a mess, this looks like an episode of "Tim the Toolman Taylor" on Tool time. LOL

Shane

i gotta say, that's classic. Ny friend just pulled the engine/tranny out of an evo but that because we're REBUILDING it. why didn't he just rent a garage w/ a lift to do your clutch rather than f*&k your engine up?if you survive this, never let him touch JACK on your car again.

Yikes I hope it still runs by the time you buddy gets done with it... I wouldn't track it right away if I were you...

Man, I have to say this is one botched up clutch job! He should have at least put some rags between the chain and valve cover to prevent it from being scratched up. It's pretty obvious this guy is a careless "mechanic." He can't even figure out how to separate the transfer case from the tranny. Damn, I dunno if I want this guy putting everything back together. Get him a torque wrench at least! Your clutch and flywheel will be spinning up to 7500 rpm. You do not want those things coming loose. And put some loctite on the flywheel bolts.

Good luck on putting your car back together.

Oh, and please tell me you have a clutch alignment tool.

edited
 

edited*

when this guy said to you "were going to have to pull the motor" you should have kicked him in the junk & had someone else help you!!!!! that is the most careless job i have ever seen, good luck to you!

I imagine the sound your tranny is gonna make when that sealant busts loose on a launch

CLANG!!!!

WOW just WOW. I think I would have done a better job (trust me on this) although I hate clutches but daaaammmmm. I feel your pain but i am speachless.

wow someone needs to call evo services and get that evo in a loving home far away from the absuive mechanic hands its in now!!

:crap: why is the motor out anyway???? I have no idea....... :crap: :confused:

"Don't worry, dude, my dad is a TV repairman, he has an awesome set of tools, I can fix it" - Jeff Spicoli

oh my god. what makes you think that he can finish this job? its obvious he's in over his head. i've repaired hack jobs like this before and it is absolutely unacceptable. anyone that has access to the vin # on this car needs to post it because safety is an issue here. people's lives are at stake.

correction: The mechanic is a family friend, not family, and the thing is...hes a good mechanic wit regular cars, like he knows how to take ane engine out and drop it back in and piece everything together, i just dont think hes ever worked with a performance car like the evo. And yes i did make am mistake by letting him touch the car, but once we get past this stage and get the tranny and engine together and its in the bay im pretty sure its all go from there cuz he can hook everything back up, i just need to go get a torque wrench and have him torque everything down to spec

wow... ouch. all i can say is... the mechanic really did a number on him... trying to show off his abilities and ended up screwing up instead.

personally i wouldnt fix anything belonging to someone elses unless i was sure about what i was doing, and even then i would cover it if i damage it from a stupid mistake....

now if i didnt know much but the other person still asked for my help i would let them know im unsure of how its going to turn out. that way i dust my hands off if damage is occurred

Look guys stop scaring the guy. Everything is repairable you just need to find a good welder that can weld aluminum. And yes you should bring the TC and Tranny down so that everything will line up. The good news is that it is just one of the ears of the 6 bolts that holds the TC to the tranny. At first look i thought it was a ear that holds the rear motor mount (ouch!!!) but you got lucky there. I just sent you the shop manual directions so just follow those and take your time and everything will work out. OH YEA GET A GOOD TORQUE WRENCH!!! AND GOOD LUCK AND LIKE I SAID CALL ME IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS.

Chris

and i really advise anyone and every1 to take ur car to someone who knows what theyre doing because the evo is not a regular "patient" as i might put it at this point.

thanks to Chris for helping me out in my time of need. Really appreciate it bro, still nothing new, went to get something to eat before i get back to this nightmare which i hope will end out ok. Will post in a few hours to see how its going

seriously ralliartevoVIII... i would only go to mechanics who have experience with evo's

yea once again, that was my mistake. I didnt know the evo was THIS hard. I have learned my lesson. I am gonna just put the tranny back onto the engine, have him complete the job, if the car runs fine, then its ok, if not, then im gonna either sue him for damages, or have it taken to the dealer and have him pay for whatever they charge me.

Ok, I'm confused...he's a mechanic right??? WHY DOESN'T HE HAVE A TORQUE WRENCH?!?! :lol:

I did my clutch and flywheel install myself and it WAS a bit*h the 1st time...but damn bro. I hope you learned a lesson here.

Good luck with her man...

-B

Holy Chit!!!!

:Subscribes to thread:

You might be able to get the out case of the transmition from the dealer, and put your gears in to the new case.....Just don't have the same guy do it........I ad the same story with my Supra, but in my case the Michanic went out of business and my parts ( altornator, power stering pump...and dozen other things were thrown out.......) Good luck

You do know that the A/C has to be recharged now. Man, I really wish you the best of luck, I had Mitsu take my engine apart when it blew and then give it back to me in pieces once they denied the warranty, I know how you feel. Just take a good look at the service manual Chris sent you and make your friend PAY ATTENTION to it! He has already proven that he needs help, and if he does not have a torque wrench then he is really not much of a mechanic. Theat may sound stupid, but those who work on cars a lot know what I am talking about, it is just one of the things that a serious mechanic has to have.

Ok ... from my comments above, take it with a grain of salt. I don't mean to be condecending or pointing the finger and laughing. It sounds like you 'really' want to make sure things go right from here on out, I'm sure you'll be ok.

Let me say that the EVO is 'stout' enough, and I don't think there should be any 'hidden' problems. Just be very, very, very careful putting the engine back into the bay.

As a funny aside, once we had another 'friendly' neighbor help take out an engine in an Astro Van. During one afternoon before my father made it home to suck the engine out, the 'neighbor' disassembled, the drive train on the van, and took out the supports under the tranny and put a jackstand under there. He wanted to take the tranny out with the motor. Now, normally the Astro, after taking out the 'front' grille and such (which is just time consuming, but not really hard) the engine unbolts and you suck it out in about 15min. As the neighbor had 'done' all this work for 'free' the 'men' decided to take the motor out 'with' the tranny, just so Mr. X wouldn't feel like his contribution was in vain :O.

As the motor got about halfway out, and was not entirely supported on one end, the whole assy. slipped! We got lucky and didn't hit anything like air cond. hoses etc ... but it dumped like 5 qt. of tranny oil all over the 2 mo. old freshly poured garage floor! I could see my father ball up and get sooo red, I thought it was worth at 'least' a few explatives, but him being the new 'pastor' in our volunteer community church and this 'guy' as one of the church's members, he just went away for about an hour. We used like 50 lb. of kitty litter to control our own Exxon Valdez oil slick on the new floor. It did get cleaned up pretty good, except for the light red tinge, from the tranny oil color.

We still use that as a lesson to 'plan' well in advance what is going to be done in 'any' car repair.

Cheers,

jcnel.

p.s. oh! please, please, please at least use the torque wrench on the flywheel and clutch nuts and boltz.

Exedy twin disc =$1250.00
Welding ear back onto transfer case=$200.00
Having a "friend of the family"ruin a $30,000 car=PRICELESS
there are some things money cant buy,but for clutch install on an evo there is SUPERZ (aka.Gil).
Good luck on having your vehicle run again,sorry for the lame attempt at humor as this is a perfect example of how Not to do a clutch install.Please forgive me as well as your friend of the family as his ignorance lasted but a moment,but a lifetime his Goodwill.He was trying to help,just didn't know what he was getting into.Sorry.............

it gets worse....as i stated the clutch/flywheel is installed, but guess what? yup u guessed it, no torque wrench, just the classy elbow. Time to go uninstall it and torque it down to specs. This just keeps gettin better doesnt it? Also whats this about charging the AC?

WOW he installed the clutch without torque specs. NOT GOOD!! Ya unless you pulled the compressor off the engine before you took it out and left all the lines connect you will have to go charge the AC agian. Becouse most likly he took out the hard lines that runs to your compressor when he pulled the engine out in doing so he let all the coolant out with it ****TY!! But thats no biggie just a little more money out of your pocket.

On a side note he could have pulled the compressor off the engine before he took the engine out but i really dont see how the tollerences are so tight it would be a pain in the ass. WELL GOOD LUCK keep us updated!

Chris

I'm sorry but that is the funniest damn thing I have ever seen.

I wish you would hav estopped him-kicked him in the balls-shot him in the head-something!!!!! He killed your car.

There's only one engine mount left holding everything up after you remove the tranny. He probably figured it was easier to pull it out then just hold it up with a cross bar from the stop and use a jack on the bottom.

Installing a new clutch isnt as hard as it seems, i am very astonished someone screwed it up this bad.

Torquing the flywheels down is REALLY IMPORTANT. Any mechanic will tell you that. Do it like you do your wheels in a star pattern.

Recharging A/C? Oh God, dont tell me he took that out too......

OMFG!!..:eek:
i did my clutch w. my friends about a month ago....it took awhile cuase we couldnt get the tranny up..that was the only part that took so long...if it went up the 1st time..it would of taken me a day...thats being really carefull w. everything...

man o man..he has to tq the fly wheel and clutch down...please do that or else you'll be in a world of hurt after...w. everyhting out like that...even after you put it together i dont think your car will ever be the same...i dont know who to feel sorry for, you or the car...gl man..keep us posted...

luckly did'nt take mine to local shop guy.took it back to dealer instead,even though i'm gettin rape on labor..it's worth it.**** i would be pissse

Wouldn't over torquing the clutch/flywheel initially (if that is what happened) kind of mess with integrity of the parts? Also, if he didn't pull the compressor of the engine, wouldn't the a/c be completely contaminated?

Looks like to me this guy is using your car as a guinea pig to learn and doesn't care what happens to it. At least READ the instructions. I hate arrogant mechanics.

No you dont- you shouldn't have to remove the motor/trans to change
the clutch. Though people do it because it makes the whole process
easy and painless. B/C once you get those two components out- it's like
cheese installing the new clutch. I'm sorry but give me the number to that guy and i'll call him and tell him he's a f*** idiot just my .02- i feel really bad for you too!

oh btw i am having second thoughts about doing this install myself along with some buddies..

well the flywheel was torqued down by hand. along wit the pressure plate...but the PP wasnt overtorqued

This has got to be the most horrific "tuner" or "do it yourself" post I have ever seen.

I'm afraid to ask, how many miles on this car??

HAHA thats great! You can do it bro confidence and tools are the key! Hit me up and ill walk you through it if you want!

Chris

You already made a mistake so I would recommend you find a way to get your car to a shop and have them to the rest of the work. If you cant move the car at all then hire someone to come over and finish the fob. The damage is done and it can get worse. Dont try to save money anymore and just do it right. Good luck. ;)

will do when the time comes. winter break sounds real good.
btw the cams i got from you are working great! {thumbup}
thanks

YOUR FLYWHEEL SPINS UP TO 7500 RPM!!! You'd better make sure that thing is torqued down right. Be sure to use some red or green loctite on the flywheel bolts while you're at it. If the flywheel comes loose while you're racing, the results can be CATASTROPHIC.

WOW Unbeliveable. WTF I can't even comprehend.

They say this engine is bullet proof.

To bad they didn't make it shady tree mechanic proof

I had some of our top mechanics take a look at your pictures, Trust me when I say you are totally screwed. Lets put it this what you have to replace your tranny.

Uuuhhh sorry i think

Our should I say Dumb A**. Waist of a perfectly good Evo.

You know what, tell your mechanic buddy to take a hike. He's in way over his head and has already proven his incompetence time and time again from the mistakes he has made on your car. He's already screwed up your car so badly taking it apart. What makes you think he can put it back together PROPERLY? Key word... PROPERLY!!! Get a real professional to put your car back together if you want it to run 100% again. Otherwise you're just opening the door to more problems down the line by letting this idiot touch your car even more.

Well i think you better get some different mechanice instead of those damn Mitsu salesman becouse first off he doesnt need a new tranny and second how are you going to say its a waste of a Evo? There are people out there that can weld aluminum and they can do it damn well. Have you seen Darkhorses work on the Head awhile back? When he started there was half a chamber of the head missing when he was finished it looked like new. And since all it is is one of the mounting locations for 1 of the 6 bolts that hold the TC to the Tranny its not that bad specially since its not the bad mounting location near the motor mount.

Was is a screw up? YAH big time but is it a waste of a EVO NO!!! Does he need a new tranny NO!!! Is it a lesson learned HELL YA!!!! Just my 0.02

Chris

Hey good to hear the cams are working good for you. Have you dont any more mods or anything? Sorry to get off topic! Just let me know when your ready hmm ROADTRIP!!

Chris

Ive been riding horses for a while.. and this one is a Clidesdale thats for sure.. hooo weee... jasper..tell cletus to go get the truck ready... we got some scrap comin our way..id bet my farm that thing thing wont run again...

ya ya chris no matter what you do you still my little *****$.. anywas listen to this guy because he knows what he is doing. but I have no idea how you take your engine out with no TRQ wrench??? I mean spark plugs need to TRQ wrench...

if I were you I would take the car to a shop and pay $$$$ to get it fixed... this guy is dumb and with out the right TRQ specs i can tell you that your fly wheel will fly front of you on the first rev.

Tell you what then. You sign a agreement on that and ill fly down and get it running for him. All i will ask in return is for the engine he can have the rest....lol.....

Sorry but i have seen worse damage including my car and becouse i dont trust any shop around my area i rebuilt it from the crank up to the cams. Everything!!! Kinda sucks that it only had 9K miles but thats what you get for trying to push the HP i was on stock internals and be border line. All i can say is it was worth it in the end. I cant wait to get back onto the dyno real soon!!!

Chris

:eek: how much was your car again? $3,500.00 only? if that is the price of my car, I would save tons of money by going it this way but for a full price evo, that is what I call poor judgement. :crap:

Ahh honey thanks for the kind words! I told you once you get that little thing of yours up from the 2" you measured (HARD) then i will give it another shot! :lol:

Anyway how is the east coast treating you?

Chris

thx 2k4evoviii .... i have talked and showed more pics to 2k4evoviii and he seems to see it my way....it isnt as bad as it seems to be. Yes i agree wit everyone on this forum, the guy did screw up, but when things go bad in life, u dont just give up and throw it out and get another one. I'm trying to fix things because it isnt that bad. If the tranny cracked in half or something, believe me...welding wouldn't even be a thought, i'd tell his ass to give me $3,000 so i can get another tranny. but yea...last night...i found a torque wrench in his toolbox (guess he had 1 ehh), and 2k4evoviii gave me the torque specs so i untorqued the flywheel,pressure plate assembly and torqued it to specs and hopefully nothing else is wrong. I separated the tranny/TC WITHOUT scratching up the entire thing. Today, gonna put the tranny/engine together using the torque wrench and torque specs. See how things get better? Anyway, will keep posting... oh here are some pics of my old clutch, BTW: I bought this car off a friend, KNOWING he doesnt know how to take care of this car that well. Only thing he knows about the evo is that it need premium octane gas and idle the car before shutoff (no tt). But i took it in hand hoping to bring it back to where its supposed to be. I got a handfull of redline gear oils on me, and use this forum as a mitsu manual on my evo. Well here's the clutch he burnt out (when i got the car, it was already slipping)...

BTW: What are the torque specs for the flywheel again, forgot where my pdf file went, because i wanna tell the mechanic the specs for it and see what he says..

Bolts for TC to Tranny = 50+6 ft lbs
Flywheel = 98+3 ft lbs
STOCK Pressure Plate = 13+2 ft lbs
Transmission to Engine = 32+3 ft lbs

Let me know if you need anything else

Chris

haaa i love this clutch no meat on it at all..... smooth like chris's a$$

LOL.... Ahh the things we miss in life! Your hot wife and the things your hot wife did!! Say hi for me!

But ya that clutch i would say is shot. I guess you could put dials on it and make it a clock

Chris

HAHAHA.... LMAO Chris..................

This is why I paid 450 for my install. It's not that easy on the evo.